The Telegraph is the first British newspaper to be given a tour of what is perhaps France’s most touching war memorial.

Only a handful of people knew that Second Lieutenant Hubert Rochereau’s parents made sure his modest room in the sleepy village of Bélâbre in central France would forever remain a shrine to their only child.

They had it sealed when in 1935 they gave the house to a military officer in return for a promise he would never change the bedroom. And they made him sign a document that the room where their son was born on October 10 1896 would be kept intact for the next 500 years.

On 12/14, in the midst of the horror, I received notice that I had been selected to race on Team USA in the World Maccabiah Games in Israel. I put it aside.

Days later I attended Noah Pozner’s funeral. My rabbi and friend, Shaul Praver, spoke about how Israelis cope with their grief following a terrorist attack. They “go to the place” and emerge with a purpose to live for their loved ones, to do something to make the world a better place. At that time, I decided I would join Team USA and race in Israel for them and Team 26 began to develop in the days that followed.

When I arrived in Israel on July 17th, I met my new teammates, now friends for life. With them, I attended the Opening Ceremonies at the Teddy Soccer Stadium in Jerusalem filled to the brim with 35,000 people and athletes from around the world (over 9,000 athletes from over 70 countries). As I marched in, listened to Prime Minister Netanyahu live and then President Obama on the video screens, all I could think about were my neighbors in Sandy Hook. It occurred to me that there was not a single person in that stadium from every corner of the world who had not heard of my small town because of 12/14. All I wanted to do was find my daughter who was in the stands and give her a hug.

Two days later, I went to the Western Wall. I teared up as I recited the Mourner’s Kaddish for our 20 children and 6 educators. I placed a piece of paper in the Wall. On it, I wrote: “Peace, Hope, Love” the same words on Team 26’s jerseys placed there by Chris McDonnell to spread his daughter Grace’s message.

The next day was the time trial (not my specialty). I rode the TT of my life and earned a bronze medal individually and a silver medal in the team competition. As with the ride to Washington, once again, I had Grace and the other 19 children on my wheel.

Between the TT and the road race, I visited Yad Vashem. I cried my eyes out as I stood in the Children’s Memorial listening to the names, ages and countries of a small fraction of the 1,500,000 children murdered. It brought me right back to the reading of names at Edmond Town Hall. I then found my Sandy Hook friend Andrei’s grandparents and aunts and uncles in the Garden of the Righteous for saving Jews during the Holocaust. It was my honor to visit them, and it reminded me that even in the darkest times, good people emerge to do courageous and amazing things.

I was 17 and it was the weekend of my senior prom. I danced and enjoyed the evening and slept the sleep of a teenager when I got home before getting up around 3pm to spend time with the family.

I was reading and commenting on a blog entry by one of my best friends when the phone rang at 10:30pm. I was startled because all my friends knew not to call after 10pm because it peeved my parents. I grabbed the phone quickly so that it wouldn’t ring too much; it was another friend on the other end.

I don’t remember the sequence of the call. I was probably a little irritated because folks knew not to call, but then she said that Carrie was dead.

There’s a moment where all the feeling leaves your chest, and it’s just an empty void that’s left behind. You can’t quite comprehend what’s happening and you can’t quite process why, all you know is that it’s there. It’s almost like being punched in the chest and having the wind knocked out of you.

We finished talking - I don’t remember - and I went to tell my parents. There were more friends to call, to pass the word on so it wouldn’t come from the newspaper - one of whom had been waiting for her at the mall. The whole next week is moments of blurs and moments of sharp clarity. Finding out the details - a street sweeper going 40 mph in the rain lost control and veered into her car (the joke goes that of course it would be a strange way, because that’s who she was). The viewing. The funeral.

Carrie was one of my best friends through high school. She was giving and compassionate and creative - she loved to tell stories and write. She gave the best hugs. We had our angst, we had our fights, and we had grown. She’d just finished her first year of undergrad, was thinking about whether she wanted to be a teacher or a writer, finally back home for the summer and I was looking forward to spending time with her now that my AP tests were done.

I never got the chance.

Carrie taught me to always take advantage of today, because you never know what tomorrow will bring. I don’t put off visiting friends anymore. I always close a conversation with “I love you.” I give the hugs and I don’t care who’s watching.

I make no statements about an afterlife, but I firmly believe that as long as there are people here that remember us, our impact on the world doesn’t leave. She’s still here because I still remember - and I still share who she was and do my best to live by the example she gave.

It’s been ten years since that phone call. Miss you, Carrie. I love you and I’ll always remember.

klys (maker of Silmarils)re: #8 Decatur Deb Guns don't terrify me. I can accept cancer or other health risks. But car accidents, especially when I am getting ready to travel for some reason... They did donate her corneas. It was all they could ...

Major TomHe was a murderer. But the police response was extremely questionable. I don't think they had any intentions of taking him alive. I could think of many ways that they could have acted to end the stand off. A siege ...

Völklingen, a town in the western German state of Saarland, has had a district named after a Nazi war criminal for the past 56 years. Many residents are fighting passionately to make sure that it stays that way.

People don’t say hello to Christoph Gottschalk on the street anymore, and his wife gets snapped at when she is at the local athletic club. Another resident who shares his opinions is ignored in some bars, and the gardening club refuses to rent him a wood chipper. Gottschalk, 61, and his comrades-in-arms feel like outcasts in their own neighborhood, all because they are fighting to change the name of their district from that of a convicted Nazi war criminal.

In 1956, Völklingen, a town in the western German state of Saarland, decided to dedicate a memorial to Hermann Röchling (1872-1955), an industrialist and a Nazi, and to name a district after him. Today, about 1,300 people live in Hermann Röchling Heights, an idyllic hilltop neighborhood built next to a forest. The neighborhood is well-removed from the town’s trouble spots, and everything there would be just fine — if it weren’t for Gottschalk and his handful of kindred spirits.

They persistently point out that Hermann Röchling was a Nazi convicted of crimes against humanity, who approached Adolf Hitler in 1933 to ask him to prevent the Saar region, which was still being administered by the League of Nations at the time, from becoming a “Jewish conservation area.” As a businessman, he exploited thousands of forced laborers during World War II, and had the insubordinate workers sent to a labor camp near his plant.

American Marines and Israeli fighters besides the bronze American flag Memorial ,during 11th anniversary memorial ceremony for the victims of 9/11 attacks in a Memorial monument in Jerusalem Hills on September 11 2012.

Jerusalem - At Israel’s Sept. 11 memorial — a 30-foot bronze sculpture of a waving American flag that morphs into a memorial flame — the father of one victim endorsed the crackdown on terrorism. Dov Shefi, the father of Hagay Shefi, who was attending a conference that day in the twin towers, said, “Let us hope that the free world will continue to fight against leaders of terrorist organizations and their supporters; let all the souls of the thousands of victims whose names are marked on this great living memorial in Jerusalem be remembered from here to eternity.”

Eleven years after terrorists attacked the World Trade Center, the new multibillion-dollar World Trade Center once again dominates the lower Manhattan skyline. Hundreds of construction workers are at the 16-acre site every day, and tourists snap thousands of photos of the two towers that are nearing completion.

Here is a look at the status of the trade center’s major components, according to its developers:

— Most of the 8-acre memorial quadrangle at the World Trade Center opened last year on the 10th anniversary of the attacks. Since then, some 4.5 million people have visited the memorial, with its twin reflecting pools where the towers stood. But a museum being built in a cavern beneath the plaza is still incomplete. Work all but stopped last fall because of a funding dispute between the memorial foundation and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Joseph Daniels, president of the National Sept. 11 Memorial and Museum, said that once construction resumes it will take more than a year to finish the job, meaning the museum might not open until 2014.

— One World Trade Center, formerly known as the Freedom Tower, will open in 2014 on the northwest corner of the trade center site with 3 million square feet of office space. Tenants so far include magazine publisher Conde Nast and the federal government’s General Services Administration. The spire atop the 104-story building will reach the symbolic height of 1,776 feet. There will be observation decks on the 100th, 101st and 102nd floors. The building without the spire has reached its full height of 1,368 feet. It is expected to cost $3.9 billion by the time it is finished.

One by one, six coffins were rolled into a high school gymnasium here Friday and were surrounded by Sikh men and women singing traditional Punjabi hymns. As they sang, thousands of people from around the world streamed into the gym to mourn the six worshipers who were shot and killed on Sunday at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin here.

The deaths have rocked the town and reverberated throughout the global Sikh community, leading neighbors to skip work and visitors from as far as India to converge at Oak Creek High School for a group memorial service and wake.

“These bullets have hit their hearts,” said Rajwant Singh, chairman of Sikh Council on Religion and Education, who traveled from Washington. “It has become a big family gathering. It is really a shaking moment hitting the core of the community.”

During the visitation, families of the victims stood next to the bodies of their loved ones. Wooden coffins, draped with white cloth, were lined up under the basketball nets. Behind each coffin was a portrait of the victim and flowers.

President Obama has made inroads with our military who at first doubted him. He’s shown that he is a competent commander in chief intent on protecting U.S. interests abroad. Witness the hostage rescue from the Somali pirates early in his term, and the continuing drone strikes that have killed many specific enemies of the US, including Osama Bin Laden, and Anwar al Awlaki.

Here’s the text followed by a link to the truth. Please share the Snopes page widely since outright lies like this need to be debunked immediately, and there are so many gullible people in the GOP who will automatically believe this without checking because they want to believe it.

WHAT’S UP WITH THIS GUY?!

If you are a veteran, you know.
If you are not a veteran, ask one.
I’m sure they’ll tell you.

Only 3 Times…Only 3

In all the years since D-Day, there are three occasions when the president failed
to go to the D-Day Monument that honors the soldiers killed during the Invasion.

The occasions were:

1. Barack Obama 2010
2. Barack Obama 2011
3. Barack Obama 2012

For the past 68 years, all presidents, except Obama, have paid tribute to the fallen soldiers killed on D-Day. This year, instead of honoring the soldiers, he made a campaign trip on AirForce One to California to raise funds for the upcoming election

Destrore: #2 reine.de.tout I am with you on the Romney vs Obama. What you said is reasonable. But with Romney you get the crazy GOP alongside him. That is why we are better with an Obama as problematic as his ...

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From Sen. Schumer's Facebook page: There are two simple reasons the comparison does not hold water. First, the federal RFRA was written narrowly to protect individuals' religious freedom from government interference unless the government or state had a compelling interest. ...

UPDATE MARCH 30: NEW TIME FOR LIVE STREAM - 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. PDT NASA's Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator (LDSD) project will be flying a rocket-powered, saucer-shaped test vehicle into near-space from the Navy's Pacific Missile Range Facility on ...

What's this? Another article on Cracked about how incorrigibly tribal-minded us homo sapiens are? Well, yes. But the proverbial devil is in the proverbial details. Proverbially. It's still worth reading. That's what I'm getting at. Everyone is talking about Scientology ...

China attacks the biggest code repository in the world. After battling a distributed denial of service attack for four days, GitHub on Monday was able to restore normal service levels. The primary target of the assault is greatfire.org, which is ...

An American woman--presumably not Muslim, though she doesn't say one way or the other--married to a Libyan man is taken aback when her 9-year-old daughter suddenly wants to start wearing hijab. This is the story of how conflicted she felt ...

NEW YORK, March 27 (Reuters) - Big Wall Street banks are so upset with U.S. Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren's call for them to be broken up that some have discussed withholding campaign donations to Senate Democrats in symbolic protest, ...

By Lawrence Hurley WASHINGTON, March 30 (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear a new challenge to President Barack Obama's healthcare law that took aim at a bureaucratic board labeled by some Republicans as a ...

Depending on the outcome of a hearing scheduled for Monday, a 33-year-old Indiana woman could face up to 70 years in prison for what she says was a miscarriage. Reproductive rights advocates say her case is a disturbing example ...

The number of things getting plugged into the "Internet of Things" has already reached the point of satire. But there's a new, extremely low power technology that's being prepared for market that could put computing power and network access ...

Are conservatives anti-science? Spoiler: Conservatives aren't anti-science or pro-science. But, they are pro-common-sense. And once more scientists adopt common sense approach to science, they'll find that they have the support of conservative politicians - the people whose job it is ...

cracked.com Once the fighting started, a lot of people died, well over a million on our side alone. For the war to continue, a constant stream of new fighters had to join up, and they didn't have the benefit of ...

Here is an interesting article on one of Tail Gunner Joe's sick witch hunts that has, unfortunately, been forgotten. I try not to feel schadenfreude of the fate of McCarthy's side kick, Ray Cohn, but I never succeed.

About the Graphic How should a woman try to get ahead in a male-dominated workplace? Perhaps the answer lies less on women "manning up" and more in how businesses value their employees. Many women confront this tension as they ...

If we accept the idea of Orthopraxy over Orthodoxy, then what does evangelism look like? What is the Witness of those who try to follow the Way of Christ Jesus? To evangelize is to spread the good news that we ...

A short column in The Nation that is a must read. The primary difference between liberalism and conservatism, at least in theory, is that the latter is an ideology and the former isn't. Conservatism, as Milton Friedman argued, posits that ...

Blow off Snowden all you like, but what was revealed to be true is still true. The NSA lacks oversight with power. FISA is already too much and now they casually exceed even that generous provision. The world first learned ...

This is a powerful admission of culpability and I applaud his courage in making it. It really should be read in its entirety. Glenn Ford should be completely compensated to every extent possible because of the flaws of a system ...

Sarah Vine of the DM gets it wrong: SARAH VINE: Teaching 11-year-olds about rape is a form of child abuse The problem with this country, I've come to realise, is that it treats adults like children and children like adults. ...